(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vaporizing liquid fuels and mixing the vapor with air for spark ignition in an internal combustion engine.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Automobiles are powered almost exclusively by internal combustion engines. With the advent of the energy shortage, people became concerned with the number of miles per gallon that their cars could get. Many cars on the road today have large engines which can produce much more power than is necessary to go the speed limit. These large engines use a great deal of gas. Many methods have attempted to increase the gas mileage of these large engines. These attempts to increase the performance of large engines have met with only varying degrees of success. One area for improvement is better vaporization of the liquid fuel. Different methods for controlling the amount of vapor have been tried. Many inventors have attempted to control the vapor flow by controlling the amount of fuel which is vaporized. This method is usually unsatisfactory as it is very difficult to regulate the rate of vaporization as opposed to the rate of introduction of air into the vaporizer.
Before filing this application, applicant caused a search of the prior art to be made at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. That search disclosed the following patents:
______________________________________ GRONKWIST 1,625,997 MENGELKAMP 2,821,843 AUTHEMENT 3,963,013 PIERCE 4,074,666 TOTTEN 4,106,457 QUINN 4,146,002 ______________________________________
QUINN discloses a fuel preheater using hot water from the car's cooling system to vaporize fuel which is mixed with air and forwarded to the carburetor.
TOTTEN discloses a fuel vaporizer for vaporizing fuel using hot water and having a valve for adjusting the amount of fuel sent into the vaporizer.
It appears that the other patents listed are of general interest only. These prior patents show that the vaporization of gas and mixing it with air before it reaches the carburetor increases the gas mileage. However, one of the most perplexing problems has been the regulation of the flow of the vapor into the carburetor. Another problem in the art has been the maintenance of a steady heat in the vapor mixing compartment.